On Thursday 31st July, Harewood Downs hosted the annual Douglas Johns Trophy. Regarded as the unofficial U15 national championship, it was set to be a great event as the best U15’s in the country descended upon the golf club. As the thunder and lightning storms danced around us, we were able to complete all 36 holes undisturbed.
Sebastian Duffield (Sand Martins) used his local knowledge to his advantage as he had 4 birdies on the front nine however after a couple of dropped shots on the back nine he finished +2. Alfie Batten (Stoneham) & Joshua Jackson (Burhill) sat one shot better on +1 after round 1. Isaac Hayes (Feldon Valley) unfortunately bogied the last hole to join Alfie & Joshua on +1. Justin Chenu (Rochester & Cobham) went out in the first group and set a clubhouse target of -1. Fellow Rochester & Cobham member, Harry Fryer carded 6 birdies on his way to matching Justin’s score. Max Blake (Corhampton) was +2 after 9 holes but came back in a bogey free -3 to join the leaders on -1 after 18 holes.
Justin continued his fine form as he matched his morning round and posting a target of -2. Seb moved up the leaderboard after carding 5 birdies on route to shooting 67 (-2) to finish level par. Harry couldn’t match his morning round but still produced a solid afternoon score of 70 (+1). Harry’s total score of level par resulted in a nett score of -6, however this wasn’t enough to secure the handicap prize as Faeez Chaudhary (Beaconsfield) had a fantastic afternoon round to sneak ahead of a nett total of -7. Max needed to shoot -1 to force a play off however he just came up shy finishing on a total of -1 for the event.
Congratulations to Justin on winning the Douglas Johns Trophy. Justin joins Justin Rose, Alex Fitzpatrick, Marco Penge and many others as previous winners of Douglas Johns!
Thank you to Harewood Downs for their continuous hard work and support to make this event a success.
Click here to view the leaderboard.
